Inside The Art of Rogue One

I feel Rogue One might be the most gorgeous cinematic Star Wars film ever made. It’s full of incredible vistas, strange aliens, and wonderful locations…especially Vaders Castle—and behind that imagery is an absolute plethora of incredible concept art, and thanks to the release of The Art of Rogue One, we finally get a glimpse at some of that amazing work.

Written by Josh Kushins—with forewords from Rogue One director Gareth Edwards, Concept artist Doug Chiang, and art director Neil Lamont—The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story collects a huge wealth of production and concept art from across the making of the movie, see some of the amazing page spreads below.

Pao originated as a sketch for The Force Awakens—just a one-off drawing from a creative brief that never made it into the movie. He started as a guy with loads of long, spiky hair—glam-rock hair, to give you a sense of volume—who is basically just a mouth. For Rogue One, that didn’t work with the military angle, so I replaced the hair with a kind of kepi but kept the big mouth. Gareth liked the idea of him in the battle, turning to his comrades and yelling ‘Come on!’—but his mouth opens far beyond what you’d expect.” – Lunt Davies

Admiral Raddus Concept Art

the-art-of-rogue-one-admiral-raddus-concept-variations

Early K-2SO concept art

the-art-of-rogue-one-_-k-2so-early-concept-art

the-art-of-rogue-one-k-s20-concept-version-1a-concept-art-9

Spaceships and Vehicle concept art of Rogue One

the-art-of-rogue-one-tie-strikers-over-scarif-concept-art

the-art-of-rogue-one-u-wing-concept-art

the-art-of-rogue-one-mining-shuttle-concept-art

the-art-of-rogue-one-krennics-shuttle-concept-art

Look sir!! Droids

the-art-of-rogue-one-_-protocol-droid-version-1a-adam-brockbank

VADER’s CASTLE

One of the best bits was Vader’s castle which was originally mooted for The Empire Strikes Back before it was cut, with Rogue One using the original concept art by Ralph McQuarrie to help inspire the version they used.